1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to display devices and more particularly to an improved visual display system for use by the pilot and/or other aircraft flight personnel.
2. Prior Art
Various types of equipment have been devised and utilized to assist the pilot and/or co-pilot, engineer, etc. during take-off, flight and landing of commercial and other aircraft. One type of such equipment is directed toward coordinating and controlling a number of aircraft radio communications and navigation instruments from a single digital keyboard installed in the flight cabin. The equipment itself is complicated and expensive. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,945. Another complicated and expensive type is utilized in association with an airborne general purpose navigational computer. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,378. A third type of less complexity, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,281 is concerned with the display in a cockpit of preprogrammed flight data on one of a plurality of display elements. However, such device does not provide for the display of multiple data simultaneously on a plurality of separate display devices. Moreover, it includes a data processor which must be activated to enter the data and ultimately to display it in suitable form, modified or unmodified.
There remains a need for a simple, manually controllable flight data display system for pilots and the like, which system can simultaneously display a plurality of different data in one or more display devices and which data can be directly and immediately modified by the pilot from a simple control panel.